WHEN A TRIUMPHANT LECH WALESA became President of Poland in 1990, European communism appeared to be finished for good. As police states dissolved, members by the millions tore up their party cards, and democratically elected parliaments in most of the newly free countries voted to bar communist parties from the political process.
Now, barely five years later, ex-communists have returned to power across much of Eastern Europe, and last week the mighty Walesa himself fell victim to the comrades' comeback. Aleksander Kwasniewski, 41, a minister in the last communist Polish government, defeated the old Solidarity war-horse in a runoff presidential election....
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
